E. Magnus, For All, Vestfossen: Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, 2003, p. 125 (illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
Lot 121 shares in Pruitt’s near-monomaniacal preoccupation. Rather than the panda itself, the painting depicts the animal’s main food source. The bamboo shoots spindle in febrile silhouette against the unprimed linen: an isolated yet complex fragment of the habitat which Pruitt’s beloved animal inhabits. Attentive to the minutiae of the panda’s environment, the painting represents a deepening of his fixation. Here too, glitter is scattered atop the piece to enchanting effect, transforming and elevating the panda’s habitat. Like White Pandas, Black Bamboo reveals the influence of Andy Warhol at the level of composition and materiality; both monochromatic background and sprinkled glitter recall the work of the pop art forebear. Yet Pruitt’s most important inheritances from Warhol are notions of recurrence and variation. Like his predecessor, Pruitt fixates on certain subjects, examining and celebrating through repetition. In the present lots, as elsewhere, Pruitt is engaged in the creation of his own mythology, bodying forth a world of recurrent motifs and obsessive recursion that is both distinctive and enthralling.